iPod Touch Martians

The year 3F children think that using the iPod touches this week has been lots of fun because they got to make their own Martians. As a class, we tried to use the iPod Touches safely and to follow our rules.

The program Martian was really good to use and it was fun to try and create a Martian which was the same as our partner's Martian. We had to think

how to describe our own Martian so that our partner could create one that looked the same. We had to listen carefully to our partners and

to think about how to create the Martian. This activity helped to improve our listening and thinking skills. It also gave us time to learn how to use the iPod Touches while we made our Martians. In this activity we really had to thin

k carefully about how our Martian was going to look, so it didn't look silly and

had lots of interesting details.

We also learnt how to take

a screenshot of our Martian. This was fun because then we could save all of the Martians that we created. It felt very exciting to take a screenshot. When we heard a sound like someone taking a photo, we knew that we have captured the screenshot.

Next week we are going to learn about the program "comic touch". This program will allow us to add speech bubbles and some other comic features to a screenshot. We

will tell you more about this activity next week.

We are very happy that we are able to use the iPod Touches in our class this year.

iPods get some Fresh Air!

Well, can you guess what happened to me today?  I was walking back to the library just now when I saw a very interesting sight...

The gardens were full of year 3 people brandishing their little silver treasures.  The students were in groups of three, excitedly discussing the plants in the gardens, pointing out their features and taking photos of what they could see.  Miss Sams tells me they are going to share their photos back in class and discuss what they noticed about the plants.  They will take plant photos from different areas of the school and discuss any differences they find in the plants there.  What wonderful little detectives!  I can't wait to hear what they have to tell us about plants.

Getting ready to use the iPod Touches

We don't know much about the iPod Touches yet but we want to learn all about them. We have to be careful with them because they belong to the school. To help us to look after the iPod Touches, we made up some rules.

We are very excited to be using the iPod Touches in our Language Groups next week. We are going to use a program called Martian. In this program you get to make your own Martian. After we have made our Martian, we will take a screen shot of our creation. We will then try to describe our Martian to our partner and they have to try to make the same Martian on their iPod Touch. We think we will really enjoy doing this activity. Miss Ferguson showed the class how to use this program on Friday using a special projector that let us see the iPod Touch on the big classroom screen.

We think that the ipod Touches feel really comfortable in our hands. We will be bringing in our own earphones to use in class with the iPod Touch.

Don't forget to come back here every week to find out and check out more things that we are doing with the iPod Touches.

iPods 4 Parents

Dear Year 3 Parents, Grandparents and Guardians,

You are all cordially invited to join me in the school library at 8am next Monday morning when we begin our "iPods for Parents" sessions.  You will learn first hand how we are using the iPod Touches in your child's classroom and you'll have the opportunity to try out the activities for yourself.  We'll hold these sessions every Monday from next week until week 11 of term - that's from Monday 8th March until Monday 4th April.  You are welcome to ANY session ...or all FIVE! 

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Maria Mead

iPod Exploring Time

Over the last few weeks, the year 3 students have been getting 'up close and personal' with our eight brand new iPod Touches.  They have discussed how to care for them and each class has come up with a number of rules, or guidelines for their use, to supplement their existing "Acceptable Use of Technology Agreements".  Stay tuned for posts from each class about their "iPod Touch Rules".

The students have had great fun exploring the Apps, and especially using the camera, as you can see from the images below which were captured by the students during their explorations:

You will hear all about the iPod Trial on this Year 3 blog so please subscribe via email using the widget at the top right of your window.  Just enter your email address and FeedBurner will send you a confirmation email.  Remember to check your Junk folder if this confirmation email does not arrive straight away.  Click the link in this email and you'll be an official subscriber, receiving email notification of all posts to this blog.

We look forward to keeping you all in the loop, and to reading all your comments and questions about the project.  In time, the students will learn about how blogging works, from all the modelling the teachers do as they jointly construct posts with their class.  The students will also learn from you as you write comments together at home.  Next term, we will start learning how to write good comments at school until the students can contribute their own.  This "conversation" will enrich the whole experience and help the students critically reflect on their learning.  Thanks in advance for you help with this as you involve the whole family!

iPod planning

Monday I got to spend the day planning for the variety of ways we can use the iPods with the children. We came up with lots of great ideas that we can't wait to try. I am sure that over the year, the year 3's and the teachers will just continue to learn more and more about the best ways to use the iPods to enable effective and fun learning to occur.

Come back here often to see what we are doing in the class with the iPods.

Welcome!

Today the Year 3 teachers met with Mrs Mead, Mrs Hegarty and Mrs Ffrench to plan our iPod Touch activities.  We talked about our goals and priorities, and planned a timetable for the next 5 weeks.  We are going to be doing some very exciting things!  Each class will have a different focus for using the iPods, and we'll change focus each term so that we all have the opportunity to fully explore the use of the iPods in these areas. 
Here's how we'll start in Term 1:

• 3F - Literacy Focus
• 3W - Numeracy Focus
• 3S - Unit Activities (RE, History, Science)

Parents, we hope you enjoy reading our posts and talking about these with the children.  Some fantastic learning can take place during these conversations.  Along the way, we will be teaching our students about blogging so go ahead and make comments if you like - that will help us learn.  Each class will contribute to this blog so you can keep up with what's happening.